Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security

Civil Aviation Security, United States

A customs officer inspects a Body Search image, which uses x-ray
technology to allow inspectors to detect contraband on arriving
passengers who choose not to submit to the traditional "body
pat down."

AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

.

█ JUDSON KNIGHT

Civil aviation security in the United States is directed by the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which was created after the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, under the Aviation and
Transportation Security Act (ATSA). Prior to November 19, 2001, when
President George W. Bush signed ATSA into law, the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) handled civil aviation security. The passage of the
new law, and the creation of the new administration, required changes to
the federal statutes covering aviation security, which are contained in
Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter XII parts 1500
through 1699.

ATSA mandated increases in the numbers of federal air marshals, and placed
airport security screeners under federal control. It required that all
screeners be U.S. citizens (a provision later challenged by the American
Civil Liberties Union), and that all bags be screened or matched to
passengers. It also included provisions for awards of $1.5 billion to
airports and private contractors to meet the direct costs of meeting new
security requirements.

The law created TSA, to be headed by a Transportation Department
undersecretary for security appointed by the president and confirmed by
the Senate. Overseeing TSA would be a new Security Oversight Board
consisting of cabinet secretaries, or their designees, from the
departments of Transportation, Defense, Treasury, Justice, and Homeland
Security (the latter, then the Office of Homeland Security, became a
cabinet-level department on March 1, 2003), as well as one representative
each from the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security
Council.

The undersecretary would appoint a federal security manager at each
airport nationwide, and was authorized to provide air marshals as he or
she saw fit. Each flight deemed a high security risk would have air
marshals, who could be appointed at the undersecretary's
discretion. In consultation with airport and law enforcement officials,
the undersecretary would order the safeguarding or airport areas as
needed.

In the field of airport security screeners, these were placed under
federal control as uniformed TSA employees. Airport security screeners had
to be proficient in English, pass background checks, undergo a minimum of
40 hours' classroom instruction or the equivalent, complete 60
hours on-the-job training, and be tested each year.

In addition, the undersecretary was authorized to establish a test program
whereby five airports (one from each of five levels of security risk)
would be permitted to contract directly with private companies. These
companies would have to have standards at least as high as those of the
federalized screening force, which would operate at all other hub
airports—of which there were 424 total in the United States at the
time—for two years. At the end of two years, airports would be
allowed to opt out of the federalized screening program if they so choose.

Within 60 days, all checked baggage would have to be screened, either by
explosives detection machinery, or manually. The law also authorized the
Secretary of Transportation to require airports to use all necessary
equipment for the detection of chemical or biological weapons.